Perhaps one of the first things aspiring writers do when they start their work is to look for a bunch of writing tips and tricks from successful authors, to learn from and to keep inspired. The internet is full of sage advice about writing, but sometimes it’s nice to hear from contemporary authors, who are familiar with the current state of publishing.

So recently, at the 2016 Young Adult Literature Conference in Londond (#YALC for short) -YouTuber and book loverXina Haileyasked 65 YA authors about their number one tip for new and aspiring writers. The tips themselves range from practical to inspirational, and all are worth considering as well as great fun to read. There’s definitely a lot, and since this is a pretty epic post, you should reflect on these tips and consider how they’ll help you. At least one of them is probably exactly what you needed to hear.

Here are the #1 tips authors have for aspiring writers!

“When you’ve got an idea you really really want to write, the very very first [thing] that I suggest you do is write the last chapter. Actually envisage the whole chapter so you know exactly how the story ends, then when you go back to the beginning, your whole thing has a direction of travel.”

“Basically, write loads… just do it lots, just write as many different types of things that you can… it doesn’t have to be anything in particular, but the best thing to do is just to get loads of words on the page and keep going, and improve all the time.“

“Free yourself of perfection… [there’s a] critical voice in your head [that] starts to tell you that it’s not good enough or that no one’s going to like it…. it’s about turning that voice off in your ead and just allowing yourself to write…“

“Get your first draft done by hook or crook no matter how long it takes, no matter how painful the process. As soon as you’ve got that first draft in place, that’s your starting point and then from there it’s sort of all downhill, easy riding…”

“Do the outline before you start writing… I found that by doing outlines, that the shape originally should be something that you can alter as you go, as new things come to you. But just having the scaffolding in place helps just to know where you’re going.“

“My piece of advice is very obvious, but it can never be stated enough: write. If you want to be a writer, then you’ve got to write. There’s no magic involved; the more you write the more you learn and the better you get.“

“Include a bit of yourself into it. You have to slice off a bit of your own soul and put it in those pages… one moment of pure honesty is all you need to get the audience to connect with your characters… that’s what you need, that’s how you make books real.”

“My advice to young writers would be, be stubborn. The best piece of advice that I was given was that when you get rejection letters, treat them as trophies. The more you have, the better you are doing, the closer you are to your goal, and it’s evidence that you are taking your craft seriously.”

“Turn off all of the noise, don’t look at the internet, don’t look at the book that’s just come out that sounds a bit like yours… it doesn’t matter if someone has the same story as you. The execution might be different — just stick to what you can do.“

“I would say just don’t give up. It took me fifteen years to get published, so this is my first published book, but this is actually my fourth novel. So just keep going, that’s the only difference between the people who make it and the people who don’t, and learn your craft.”

“Always write about the thing which you’re passionate about, and don’t try to write trends, or like writing the next Hunger Games or Divergent dystopian novel. Write about the weird quirky thing you’re obsessed with, because someone out there will be just as obsessed with it as you are…”

“I would say keep a diary even though I know people worry that [others] will find your diary and read it. But what I do now, I kept a paper diary when I was younger but now I e-mail myself… it’s a really good way of just getting used to expressing yourself using words, and a good way also of getting your stuff out of your system then you can go and write stories instead…”

“[My father] used to tell me that if you couldn’t see [your goal], you couldn’t believe it then you wouldn’t achieve it… I read this book called Creative Visualization by Shakti Gawain… I think that it’s a really useful tool because… it’s important to always have your end goal in sight.“

“The biggest piece of advice that I can give you is that if you’re going to be in any creative profession, you should turn all of the no’s that you’ll hear – and you’ll get a lot of them – into ‘not yet,’ instead… if you assume that those ‘no’s’ mean ‘not yet,’ that means you just have to try harder and look more impressive the next time…”

“Learn to love failure, and to accept that things that you do may not work, but that is a brilliant positive part of the process of working towards the thing that will work, and all the abandoned books and all the things that you cut out of your manuscript will end up somewhere in a little magical shed in your head and you can go there and… eventually build something beautiful.”

“There is no correct way to write a book. There is only the way that you write it, and you’re going to have to figure that out on your own… you’ve got to read books telling you how to do it, and sometimes they’re useful… but basically you’re going to figure this out on your own, and however it works for you is good.”

“Never give up. It took me ten years to get published, and the only difference between me and you now is time, so just keep going, keep submitting, keep sending it out, keep practicing, keep rewriting — just don’t give up, because soon enough, you’ll be holding your own book.”

“Write what you feel compelled to write, and not what you feel like you’re supposed to write… let yourself fail repeatedly and don’t put pressure to be perfect the first time, because it is never ever perfect the first time.”

“Write because you enjoy it, and if you don’t enjoy it, won’t want to do it, and you can only do more writing if you want to do it… don’t feel pressured, never feel like you have to write, never feel guilty for not writing. Just do it because you love it.”

“It’s always, always write a book you want to read yourself, because you’ll be amazed at how many people don’t, and they write for other people or the market, but it’s the books you write for yourself that other people want to read.”

“Write what you fear. If you fear something, if you’re afraid of something, if you’re troubled by something, then that’s probably the best place to write from, because in writing it you work through it and you may find yourself writing something that surprises even you.”

“Read, read everything you can. Read all the time. And then, when you’re not reading, write all the time, write loads and loads and loads and loads, and throw most of it away, and then rewrite the good bits, and eventually if you keep persisting at that, you end up with a book.”

“Enter writing competitions. There are loads of fantastic contests out there for young people, and for me, that was how I had this first moment of other people going, ‘you’re good, keep at it, you’re on to something.'”

“I think that one thing that I’m really pleased that I did was find some fellow writers who I could work with and share my work with, and also learn to look at their work and criticise them nicely and give them feedback…”

“You do some of your best work when you’re not actually writing. So when I’m walking my dog, or when I’m sort of like having a swim, when I’m just thinking really hard about… what I want to write… I think it’s really just sort of important to actually get away from your desk, to get away from the tyranny of your blank screen and actually write in your head before you ever pick up a pen or like put your fingers on the keyboard.”

“Be creative, because it’s part of our humanity to be creative and there is a self-help person called Brene Brown who says that unchecked creativity is not benign, which means it makes you sick, so just do it.”

“One: keep reading, read as much stuff as you can and a wide variety of things, stuff that takes you out of your comfort zone… and buy one book: On Writing by Stephen King, because if you read that, then you will be inspired.”

“My piece of writing advice is something that I’ve stolen from Neil Gaiman… it is to finish things, so whatever you’re working on now, just slave your way through it to the end, then you’llr each some hard moments… but it’s really important to practice finishing things.”

“Finish what you start. It’s so easy to start a new book, get into it, and then you get a bit of a block and you stop writing it… a book that’s finished is worth a thousand times more than a half-finished book.”

“Just to be brave. I think the first thing you have to realize is that you have to put yourself out there, and rejection is part of the process and it’s kind of a part that you should embrace because it never goes away.”

That’s it! That’s a lot of tips! Hopefully in the future, new writers reading this will be able to share some tips themselves for a different crop of aspiring writers. Special thanks to Xina Haileyfor her Writing Advice From 65 Authors || YALC 2016video!

Did you enjoy this post? Did you find a few – or a lot – of really helpful tips that can help you improve your writing or your writing habits? Then don’t forget to share this article on social media and spread the word (you can also tag your favorite author mentioned here)!